Matrix Effect

Edward Updated by Edward

This effect type is specifically designed for large arrays of lights and LED fixtures. Every LED fixture provides a different way to control all the individual lights contained in it. To create a matrix effect, you must have already defined the fixture matrix. To define the layout of the lights, use the “Edit Matrices” option in the “More” menu on the Main Display.

 

Enter a name to identify the new effect and choose the behavior that the effect will exhibit when run. The choices are “Override (LTP)”, “Build”,” Highest Takes Precedence”,” Inhibit”, “Exclusive”, & ”Subtract”. The behavior may be changed after the effect is created.

 

Click on “OK” to create the new effect and open the Effects Editor. The newly created effect will immediately become visible in the right-hand side of the Effects Editor.

Once you have created the effect you must define the background that the effect will operate on. The background can be a jpeg, bitmap, or video (AVI) file. To set the background either enter the filename into the “Image or Video File” edit box or click on the button to the right to bring up the open file dialog box.

A default background image is always available by clicking on the “Default” button in the top right of the window. The default image allows you to create simple color fades by providing a pinwheel of the color spectrum. When a new effect of this type is created, the default image is always set.

 

Once the background has been set, you can define a path that the matrix will use to play the effect. In the example above the matrix is defined as a black box and the path is the black line tracking around the image.

To add a point, click on the desired location and the path will now trace to the newly created point. To move an existing point, click on the point (holding the mouse button down) and drag the mouse to the desired location.

 

To remove the last point in the path, click on the “Delete (X)” button in the top right corner of the window.

 

At any point you can right click to edit the details of the point. The options are:

 

To remove any other point in the path right click on the desired point and select “Delete Point” from the resulting popup menu.

 

To change the rotation of the matrix at a point, select “Edit Rotation” from the right click menu and enter the desired value (in degrees) into the edit box that appears.

 

To change the scale of the matrix at a specific point, select “Edit Size” from the right click menu and enter the desired value into the edit box that appears. When the effect plays the scale of the matrix will transition between values across the length of the path.

 

When the effect is played from the editor, the black box will track the path over the specified time. As the effect runs, NEO will map the contents of the red box onto the defined matrix. The color of each fixture will be mapped to the color on the image or video clip. The preview button (next to the “Delete” button) can be used to see the resulting output on screen.

Click on the “Show only assigned fixtures” to apply a mask over the preview that represents the fixtures in the real world.

 

Effect Length

The length defines how long the effect will play and can be any value up to 1 hour. If a video file is selected, the software will prompt you to set the length of the effect to the same length as the video. If the length of the effect is shorter than the video, the video clip will be truncated.

 

Sample Rate

Controls the rate at which frames of a video are sampled. If set to zero, the video will run at the frame rate of the system. To reduce processing time, the video may be sampled at a lower rate. For example, if set to 1 second, the video would be sampled every second and fade between samples.

 

Zoom Matrix

To change the size of the area that the matrix will use to generate output, set the zoom field. When playing back the effect, the image will be rescaled to the zoom setting to apply the correct color.

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